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Lisnabreeny monument unveiled

World War 2 monument, commemorating US servicemen, unveiled at Lisnabreeny

Latest update 19.09.2013 12:37

A special monument has been unveiled commemorating US servicemen buried in Northern Ireland during the Second World War.

One hundred and forty eight American air force, army and navy members were interred at Lisnabreeny before their bodies were repatriated or transferred to the permanent war cemetery in Cambridge at the end of the conflict.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and acting American consul general Gabrielle Moseley were among those present on Saturday 14 September. The American Military Vehicle Club provided machines from the 1940s while members of the Royal British Legion and an army pipes-and-drums unit joined a solemn parade and ceremony. A World War II B-17 Bomber also performed a fly past during the ceremony.

The ten and a half acre site was used as a burial ground between 1943 and 1948. From 1942 there were seldom fewer than 120,000 US servicemen in Northern Ireland at any one time.

Lisnabreeny is one of the oldest National Trust places in Northern Ireland. It was donated to the Trust by local writer and poet Nesca Robb in 1938 and contains a beautiful glen, the remains of a walled garden, rivers, open hills and an ancient rath.